I started out the same way. I feel coated kicks your rigs away on the landing better. When I was using regular braid it seemed like I was getting tangled a lot more. Also easier for advanced rigs also such as hinged rigs, multi rigs and whatnot to get the presentation you are after.

The lights are in fact illegal to use but the states do not enforce the coast guard inland water law in which they are supposed to. This is for all 50 states but they are more concerned with dollar signs.

I remember you asking about boilies before. Use what you enjoy. I am a firm believer in boilies and that is my own opinion. My catch rate on boilies for big fish far exceeds anything else I have used. There are certain techniques though for boilie fishing that make them perform well. It is not as simple as putting one on a hair rig and magic happening. Maybe someday I will make a drive down. I am always curious how people fish them and why they are not getting the results they want. Again you can fish any way you want that works best for you but I have tried it all and still continue to experiment. I will say certain combinations on boilies outperform others and each water is different. There are no two lakes that fish the same even if they are close to one another.

I think out of anything location is more important. Carp will school up in certain locations and if you can find those areas you stand a much better chance of catching. I agree with using less overall bait. I like bright baits that stand out. The areas you may have caught all year may not be the areas where they are schooled up so moving around and some trial and error should help out. Once you locate fish a lot of times they may stay there for a long time throughout winter.

One quick tip is test your rig near the edge before casting out. You can get a good idea of what it is doing. Like mentioned above about it floating the hook away and such. You can test it and make changes before casting out some. I used to use one piece of pop up corn and a few pieces of sweet corn. If you put the sweet corn on first and a fake piece last even if the sweet corn comes off you still have the fake corn on the top left over. It also holds on the sweet corn better as well since bluegill and other fish will peck at it.